ADAM CHRISTIE at JFL42 at the Garrison, September 24, 9 pm. More shows until September 25. Rating: NNN
At a rail-thin 6’3″, Canadian stand-up Adam Christie is hard to miss in a room. But alas, there’s something generic about his act that makes him blend into the scenery.
Understandably, the comic who also writes for the Baroness Von Sketch Show and Schitt’s Creek has lots of material about his unique physique.
He compares his arms which he’ll pretzel around his body or extend up to the ceiling during his act to a pair of lanyards he says he looks like two 13-year-old boys, one on top of the other and, in one of his set’s more amusing bits, he seeks out other tall people in the crowd to get intimate with.
His comedy persona seems to be the nerdy kid who was bullied in school and has grown up with some scars, both literal and psychological. He got married young but is now, at 32, divorced. His imagined reunion with his ex and her new boyfriend is a pleasant bit of physical comedy. But it doesn’t cut very deeply, and it doesn’t go anywhere.
In fact, Christie’s scattered act lacks momentum. There’s a clever bit about the expenses he can write off if he uses certain material in his stand-up. And he’s got two excellent jokes about inappropriate behaviour: one by the first astronaut to step on Mars, the other by the oldest person in the world.
But observations about milk cartons that no longer have missing kid ads on them, or the ideal time to listen to Tom Waits, while they’re fun, don’t tell us much about the comic.
Let’s hope he brings more personality to the SiriusXM Top Comic Finale tomorrow night.
Christie performs tonight, Wednesday, September 25, 7 pm, at the Rivoli, and at the Sirius XM Top Comic Competition, Thursday, September 26, 7 pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
